New research revealed that teenage pregnancy can increase a girl’s tendency to become very fat or obese in later years as compared to those who don’t get pregnant.
According to Dr. Erica Gunderson of Kaiser Permanente, findings revealed that “adolescence has been identified as one of the critical periods of development that set the stage for the onset of obesity later in life.” Their findings were published at the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
The researchers added that childbearing can provide greater influence on fat accumulation among teenagers. This is based on their investigation wherein they studied 1,890 women who enrolled in a national study of growth and health during their childhood years. These women had been followed up each year for the next 10 years since enrolment.
According to their results, 17 percent of the respondents gave birth to a child between 15 to 19 years old, 4 percent bearing more than one child, 10 percent were pregnant but did not have a child and the rest (69 %) did not get pregnant within that period. There were 983 African-American girls and 907 white girls involved in the study.
